Last time I said that I would tell you about my experiment with a carnivore diet.
First off, what is a carnivore diet? To some people it is an extreme dietary fad, whilst for others it is the ultimate elimination diet.
Those who’ve been diagnosed with a food intolerance may have followed an elimination diet to identify which food group/food item was causing their symptoms and discomfort.
The reason the carnivore diet is the ultimate elimination diet is that one eats only food from animals. It can be just beef, salt and water in its purest form (also called the Lion Diet), whilst the more relaxed approaches include poultry, eggs, fish and dairy, and even some vegetables (which are treated like condiments).
How did I end up eating just meat for 3 months?
Like most people, I had gradually been gaining weight over the past 20-odd years, not helped by long days at work, irregular eating patterns and eating ready meals, rather than cooking from scratch. All of it made me a prime candidate for diabetes.
In June 2017, I signed up for the I QUIT SUGAR programme, which provided meal plans and set me on my way to an improved diet. The programme meant eliminating all added sugar from meals, and resulted in 10 kg weight loss over the course of a year. Around the same time I joined a gym doing resistance training to increase my muscle mass, given that muscle burns more calories than fat tissue.
Then in August 2018, I discovered the low carb (LCHF) way of eating. I started concentrating on eating real food and removed high-carb, highly processed food from my diet, replacing them with low-carb vegetables and healthy fats. The fat provides energy and satiety as one tends to eat significantly less with the LCHF way of eating. (The fear of fat for health reasons will be the topic of a future post).
One of the benefits of the LCHF way of eating is that my non-fasting blood sugar level is now roughly the same as the fasting reference value the NHS uses. Thus, if I had been pre-diabetic before LCHF, I am sure I’m definitely not anymore.
I lost another 5 kg of weight in the first year of LCHF and then got stuck with my weight ossilating by ±2kg around my “set point”. I am sure things weren’t helped by the gym being closed during lockdown and by the dark outside over the long Northern Hemisphere winter.
This then lead me to my 3-month long carnivore experiment.
The experiment
As I was already eating a low carb diet, I didn’t suffer from the carb withdrawal symptoms experienced by most people coming to carnivore from the standard, recommended diet.
During the first month, I ate all the animal foods listed below, and kept on drinking coffee.
During the second month, I stopped eating dairy and eggs and stopped drinking coffee. And surprisingly, it seems like I am not actually addicted to coffee, as I didn’t suffer the typical withdrawal symptoms.
The third month was slightly more tricky. I started preparing 3 or 4 different types of meat to give some variety to my plate. Interestingly, when I told people that I only ate meat, the most common comment was that it must be so boring, which was the case when I didn’t eat cheese or eggs during the last two months.
The result of my experiment was another 3 kg weight loss, and a definite change in body shape. I put this down to the higher protein intake (topic of the next post) and increased use of my fat stores.
Foods to eat on a carnivore diet
Animal meat: beef, chicken or turkey, lamb, pork, etc.
Organ meats
Fish: salmon, mackerel, sardines, crab, lobster, herring, etc.
Other animal products: eggs, lard and fat from animals, bone marrow, etc.
Dairy products: double cream, hard cheese, butter or ghee
Water
Many people add salt and other seasonings and drink coffee and tea.
Benefits of carnivore diet
Many people find that they have lots more energy when they reduce their intake of carbohydrates. People following low carb diets make more efficient use of the body’s fat stores, providing a constant source of energy which doesn’t depend on the timing of the next meal. With a carnivore diet, the body has even more reason to use the body’s fat stores, which brings us to the next benefit of the carnivore diet: weight loss.
Anecdotally people also report improved mood and focus, as well as reduced inflammation.
In the world of human carnivores there are amazing stories of people who’ve improved their mental health by following a carnivore diet.
Thus, it seems like weight loss isn’t the only benefit of a carnivore diet.